My mother-in-law has now been in the hospital for twenty days. As you can imagine, it has been hard for my son, L, (8 years old), her grandson, to cope with seeing his Nannie in the hospital, on the ventilator, multiple IVs going, and on continuous dialysis. He finally decided he was ready to see Nannie on the ventilator. He only watched her from afar and did not want to go close to her. He said, with Nannie being in the hospital, if he didn't make it into the NFL, his dream, he now wants to become a doctor.

Last week, Sam was my mother-in-law's nurse. It came up, L saying he wanted to be a doctor or nurse now. After Sam checked her vitals, he asked L, would you like to listen to her heart and lungs? L was hesitant at first but then said yes. Sam cleaned his stethoscope and allowed L to use it to hear his Nannie's heart and lungs. That was the first time he had been that close to her since she had been intubated. Sam made L feel comfortable. It didn't just stop there; L asked how her pneumonia was. Sam pulled up her x-rays and showed him the difference in her lungs from when she first came into the most recent one at that time. He showed L the placement of her central line, the line for dialysis, and the feeding tube. L was so intrigued.

Because of Sam, L is now comfortable being around and talking to Nannie. Because of Sam, we had to buy a Health and Body Homeschool curriculum for L. Because of Sam, we bought L his own pair of scrubs. Because of Sam, L was disappointed when Sam didn't work the next day because he wanted more "lessons." We, especially me as mama, could never thank Sam enough for the time he took to teach L and to make him comfortable around his Nannie.